McConville and his co-conspirators lured dozens of borrowers into refinancing home loans by falsely promising low interest rates and brokers’ fees, and other attractive terms. They then negotiated different terms with lenders, forged the victims’ signatures on the final loan documents and collected hefty brokers fees – ranging from $20,000 to $57,000 – that were never disclosed. Only when the borrowers received true copies of the loan documents after the refinance did they discover that their names had been forged. In total, defendants stole over $950,000 from more than 70 borrowers, leaving victims holding $30 million in loans with terms they did not agree to.

McConville was arrested at his home late Thursday, September 10, 2009. He is being held in Ventura County Jail on $2 million bail. Holdridge is being held at the Los Angeles County Jail (Palmdale Station) on $2 million bail. Ruiz was also arrested at his home late Thursday, September 10, 2009. He is being held at Orange County Sheriff’s Main Jail on $2 million bail.

From April 2007 to October 2008, McConville and his associates provided homeowners closing documents bearing terms promised, but which the lender never approved. After homeowners signed those documents, key pages were removed and replaced with pages bearing the terms that the lender had actually agreed to. The homeowners’ signatures were forged on the replacement pages, and ALG forwarded the forged documents to the escrow company.

Homeowners only discovered they had been defrauded when they received the final loan documents with the true terms and saw their signatures forged on disclosures of closing costs, Truth-in-Lending disclosures, loan applications and other documents. ALG often collected between $20,000 and $30,000 in undisclosed broker fees. In one transaction, they collected over $57,000 in such fees.

As a result of this scheme, homeowners suffered devastating financial losses. Some were forced to sell their homes, come out of retirement, or tap into retirement savings. Others paid significant prepayment penalties — in one case, over $21,000. Borrowers often never received the significant amounts of cash-out they were promised.

VICTIMS

Michael McConville promised one couple a 5.5 percent fixed interest rate, cash-out of $58,000 and $4,500 in closing costs. Only after they signed the documents, they realized their copy did not include the pages detailing the key terms of the loan. The couple soon received loan documents from Indymac Bankand discovered their signatures had been forged and they had received a 7 percent interest rate, no cash-out, and over $50,000 in closing costs, including a $42,000 origination fee paid to ALG.

ALG contacted a 65-year-old retired woman in July 2007 and promised her a 30-year fixed rate loan at 5.25 percent. A month later, a notary had arrived at the victim’s house with loan documents reflecting the 5.25 percent fixed interest rate. After closing, the victim discovered she had received an adjustable rate mortgage with an initial rate of 8.65 percent, a $22,000 origination fee, and $2,230 in miscellaneous fees. The victim’s signature had been forged on most of the documents.

Continuing his fight against mortgage scams, Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced the arrests and charges.

“After victims signed their closing papers, McConville and his associates doctored the loan documents, forged borrowers’ signatures and slipped in hefty fees that were never disclosed,” Brown said. “This was not some clerical error but a criminal conspiracy to steal nearly a million dollars from borrowers.”

In another case, Brown recently sued Michael McConville and his brother Sean McConvilleor their part in the “Property Tax Reassessment” scam which targeted Californians looking to lower their property taxes. Tens of thousands of mailers were sent out that featured official-looking logos and demanded hundreds of dollars in payments for property tax reassessment and reassessment appeal services. The statements warned homeowners that if payments were not received by the “due date” they faced late fees or would have their file marked “non-responsive” or “ineligible for future tax reassessments.” A copy of the press release can be found at: http://ag.ca.gov/newsalerts/release.php?id=1734

Brown has made it a top priority to combat mortgage fraud. In July, as part of a nationwide sweep, Brown filed suits against 21 individuals and 14 companies who ripped off thousands of homeowners seeking mortgage relief. In total, Brown has sought court orders to shut down 32 companies and has brought criminal charges and obtained lengthy prison sentences for deceptive mortgage consultants.

THERESA MCCONVILLE, CAMRILLO LAWYER, SUSPENDED BY CALIFORNIA STATE BAR IN 1993 FOR STEALING CLIENTS FUND. WHY DID i dsids i got mad at her? sh e stole my deposit 2000 dolllars and never refunded money. what a crook lawyer. she should have lost her licence but cause of connection she got away. all i can say is she is a typikal crook lawyer who will lie in court.am glad ur son mike had a car accident . we did it for sure. u will never know how we did it. prove it.

I was just laid off from a company called Satex because Alan Ruiz was hired there and basically took the company down. He didnt do crap for the company and got paid highly. To this day he is working and I GUARENTEE you he will do it again

theresa mcconville, what a liar crook lawyer you are. never sent u 90000 magazines. fuck you. after u sold ur proprty to me, u turn around and sold it to another person without telling me. ten 6 months later that guy called me and wanted 190000 dolllars for what we agreed on 130000. ur a crook lawyer. reynaldo fong.

theresa mcconville a crook camarillo lawyer what a liar crook. she told a lie in court about a guy sending her 90000 magazines when in fact it was less than this amount. i was the postal guy who delivered the magazines but not 90000 as she was claiming.

Just finished looking up this company and hate what I found. They are still in business…my uncle just got scammed and he went to visit the new office at 11856 Balboa Blvd, Suite 203, Granada Hills (it’s a P.O. Box). His staff is still luring my uncle to “just hang on”, it takes time and they are working on it. Hate this guy!! I have been working in real estate industry over 20yrs and us old timers saw this coming ..ck out old posts on Brokers Universe..the old ones talked about this doom, way before it happened.

i am not sure if Theresa is related to these 3. i only met Kevin, Sean and Michael. if Theresa is shady, then i would not be surpised if they are related, i was only there for 8 days, its a damn shame what they did to these people.

i worked for Sean and Michael McConville in 2005. Their uncle Kevin McConville also worked with them. The company was called Atlas Lending Group in Calabasas. i worked there 8 days and quit after i discovered how shady they are. i could see this coming years ago and i am glad i only wasted 8 days with these crooks. i filed a complaint withe labor commission but the State never did anything about it. glad to see they finally caught them.

I used to work at a place across the hall from ALG, at a legitimate mortgage company, and ALG always seemed pretty shaddy to me. I also went to junior high and high school with Michael McConville, didnt think he was a scam artist back then, but when I ran into him at the building I could tell right away he was shaddy. Driving his Aston Martin. I also heard that he and his brother robbed a bank with guns blazzing. Anyone esle hear about this? I hope they all spend the rest of their lives in jail, all of them!

You obviously dont know his family then unknown …He has never been a scamer or a punk. No one in his family is. They are good hard working people. Alan doesnt even have a traffic ticket on hi record. Know what your talking about before you open your mouth.

Got to say, I’ve visited Alan Ruiz’s rented duplex in Huntington Beach and if he had any ill gotten gain, it sure doesn’t show. Check out Michael McConville’s assets, he’s the one who has been able to post $200,000 to get out of jail.

I’ve worked closely with Alan’s brother Mike Ruiz for years and he has always illustrated integrity and diligence. For someone to imply that because they are related he was somehow conspiring in fraud is a serious and mean-spirited allegation. There was a thorough investigation and if he were guilty he would have been implemented. Trying to tarnish someone’s reputation based on associated is despicable!

As an honest loan officer about to finally get sqeezed out of the business, I came here to read these stories so I could truly grasp the deviant level of fraud that occured when the guidelines were so loose.

I cannot believe that I spent 20 years of my life dedicated to an industry that has caused the country and entire world so much loss and devistation.

Now I am jobless and nearly homeless but at least these people are finally being sent to jail.

I hope one day they all realize the depth of financial and emotional pain they have caused to so many, myself included.

F.Y.I..Alan Ruiz brother Mike works for a loan servicing company. Meaning he has access to thousands of homeowners loans and personal contact information. Might of gotten his potential victims info from him..Food for thought!

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